Bomb Maker Gets 5 Years Of Probation

A Seminole County man who pleaded guilty in September to possessing a bomb was sentenced Monday to five years' probation.

Garth Kamerling, 31, an unemployed computer programmer who had said he had drinking problems at the time of his arrest and was despondent because of his divorce, said he liked to build things.

''I certainly chose the wrong thing to build,'' Kamerling told Judge G. Kendall Sharp. He said he had no ''malicious intent'' toward anyone when he built the bomb.

Seminole County deputies and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents arrested Kamerling in April. A search of his trailer turned up three bottles packed with explosives and a ''dead man switch'' used by suicidal terrorists.

Kamerling had faced up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Sharp ordered him to live in Michigan with his parents, continue counseling and not possess any firearms or bombs.

Kamerling was released to the custody of his parents in September after being held in a federal prison hospital for six months.